Brad is by far the best person to work with on repairing an 87A. Nobody
knows more about Alpha products than Brad.
That said, I think it's unfair to characterize the current regime at Alpha
as "thieving clowns." Sadly, I can't recall a time when Alpha, or its
various successors, was a well-organized company with great customer
service, even when Dick Ehrhorn was at the helm:
- When I bought my amp from the original Alpha back in 1995, the sales guy
told me that "these amps are hotrods and you have to expect them to break
down."
- Dick once admitted on a reflector that the fault-recognition code in the
87A, which works by polling instead of being interrupt-driven, was badly
flawed and that he had complained about it to no avail. This is the leading
reason why 87A hardware problems are so hard to diagnose.
- Further, the hardware and firmware design didn't allow for much if any
expansion of the code, especially after AlphaMax was added.
- The original Alpha company recorded the factory calibration settings for
all amps made back in the '90s to a PC, then lost them either due to a PC
glitch, damage to the PC or in confusion following one of the many corporate
buyouts/reorganizations than have taken place. This means you can't just
replace a damaged CPU and reload the calibration settings. The amp has to be
recalibrated by a factory expert Brad is the only person I know who can do
it. [N.B.: There have been posts on this reflector detailing how you can
write your CPU settings to a PC, and I urge owners to do so ASAP.)
- Quite a few years ago I had an op-amp fail in the IP current detection
circuit, and Dick's son told me that it was an obsolete part and that they
had very few of them left. I believe that's now even more true of many parts
in the 87A. Eventually it may become impossible to repair the amp.
- These were only some of the disappointing interactions I had with the
various regimes at Alpha.
That said, my 87A has been working steady for over 23 years (knock on wood.)
It's the amp on my main run radio in my contest station, so it gets very
heavy use 6-8 times a year. I've never had to send it back to the factory
because I've done all diagnosis and repair myself (with help from the
factory.) Brad did have to re-calibrate my 87A after the CPU's serial I/O
port got zapped by lightning, but I was lucky that he was doing an "Alpha
Day" in NH and all I had to do was drive the amp to him and wait for the
repair. Still running the original tubes. I love the amp, but do fear that
it'll become unrepairable due to unavailability of parts or cost of
shipping/repair. If that happens, I'll be springing for a solid-state amp,
probably the 1500W Elecraft.
73, Dick WC1M
-----Original Message-----
From: Leigh Turner <invertech@frontierisp.net.au>
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2018 8:41 AM
To: 'Rich Matos' <w9cin@att.net>
Cc: 'AMPS' <amps@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [Amps] Alpha 87A problems
Herb,
My advice here is throw the damn 87A anachronism thing into the trash can
and don't throw good money after bad with these thieving clowns. Clearly
and sadly Alpha is now nothing like it was in the long gone past...in both
the company ethics and savvy competency. :-(
Leigh
VK5KLT
-----Original Message-----
From: Amps [mailto:amps-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Rich Matos
Sent: Sunday, 30 September 2018 12:43 AM
To: amps@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [Amps] Alpha 87A problems
*If you paid by a credit card you can stop payment,, I assure you they will
wake up*
*"Rich" W9CIN*
On 9/29/2018 8:27 AM, Herbert Schoenbohm wrote:
> My Alpha 87A went to Alpha systems in Colorado for repair of Fault 16
> that was occurring within a few seconds of turning it on. After
> paying $1500 for their repair it was returned and immediately when
> hooked up it showed the same problem. After numerous exchanges with
> Alpha systems ( and they said they never experienced Fault 16) and
> with me checking everything like RF deck, removing HV from the power
> supply, reseating connectors all had negative results. I have come to
> the point where I want to send it back to Colorado. Unfortunately the
> past week, they have been unresponsive to any of my email trying to
> make the arrangements. This leads me to the conclusion that they are not
interested in doing any more repairs for me.
> In two years I have spent over $3000 in the repair of this unit and
> should have probably bought a new solid-state amplifier instead.
>
> 1. Any suggestions would be appreciated on the Fault 16 problem.
> 2. Is there any other place that does repairs on the Alpha 87A?
> 3. Are there any 87A users that have had similar problems?
>
> Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
> _______________________________________________
> Amps mailing list
> Amps@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>
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